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DRMNGNOW

@drmngnow

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Yorta Yorta binita & garra. Multi lineal Indigenous Custodian. Koorie , Māori , East Asian , SWANA , Celt , Dr. [email protected]

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I woke up this morning a Dr apparently.
5 years blood sweat & a whole lot of challenges to the spirit with so many times in limbo - but finally made it.. grateful for those in the small circle of support that helped me believe that I could
Make it through to the often at times seemingly nowhere to be seen finish line of this crazy task of a Phd.

I knew deep down I was never going to give up till I made it to that line however this was one thing I started in this life Ive lived to this point that I was adamant was only going to end one way and that at the finish line..And so here we are, that has happened Biami willing.

I hold firmly to the position as such that we dont need to be reconised in colonial spaces at all. We are already all that we are in and of itself. However If I am to say one thing it is that in doing this work more than anything affirms that our knowledges are of not only equal standing to any other stream of knowledge , but distinct knowledge systems that have not just a rightful place, but a necessary place to be held up and respected as vital.

Grateful also to all that have came before in these spaces well before me , their knowledges and cumulative Indigenous knowledge systems both here and globally that also inspired, provoked and took me deeper along this knowledge journey. Together our knowledges make a potent tool that is truly ustopppable. This body of work simoly does not exist without each and everyone of you and your vital knowings and teachings.

Still has not sunken in and not sure when it will. But grateful for closed chapter on this one is an understatment if ever Ive spoken one..

Special mention to my beautiful mother Aileen A for shaping me in a way to always be open to learning and attempting to understand something over judging something and how that is the very seed to who I am as a person who craves to learn and grow knowledge & to ultimately always strive to be a better person. Above and beyond all.

I know the road ahead to continue to serve communitty is the strength of such work as this lays, but for now taking a deep breath or two for the song of woka to sing some mulana ina.

Dissertation in bio by @drmngnow

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10 months ago

With the Release of 'Pray' has drawn the close of a series of pieces over the past 12 months that have formed the Ngarwu project - which begun with the song of that name meaning Listen in Yorta Yorta .

These peices where all written , recorded and self produced on Yorta Yorta country. I commenced writing these in 2021 in amidst of the depths of the trying times that we all experienced to some degree

This time in the world enabled me to go deep into a form of songwriting and production I had never before went to previously . As someone whose sense of music Sovereingty had long meant eventually self producing a full project, I biami willing achieved this.

But what has come to means more even is that 4 of the 5 of these songs ended up to featuring Yorta Yorta hooks.

Whilst I did this within songs that where within the medium of hip hop genre wise- ultimately these works are an immersion in song with Yorta Yorta language that has been a lifetime in the making . They are sacred messages that are much bigger than me.

When I first started writing songs in the mid 2000s I bemoaned deeply the fact that I didnt have access my mother tongue . I wondered the land as a young Yorta Yorta man feeling cheated and broken by colonialism for taking my mother tongue away.

I then begun learning Yorta Yorta language in 2012 after finding myself working on a project focused on the rejuvenation of our language which gave me my first exposure to our language altogether.

To go from slowly starting to speak these words to singing them meant the breaking through of many layers that colonialism formed that Ifelt so heavily.

Fast forward almost 20 years later from those moments of fearing this would never come to be I feel beyond blessed in finding a path through these songs a now sense of strengthening of my ancestral baiyiya dana connection to the old people in ways I always dreamed.

I am still a baby with lotjpa, but what I do know is I have truly found one of my most imortant life callings I could possibly have - that being doing but a small part in returning Yorta Yorta baiyiya to Yorta Yorta woka. by @drmngnow

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a year ago

Ngarwu (Listen )

Thank you from my dipa/ dipa to all that have listened to and supported Ngarwu over the past week since release.

Its been medicine to be sharing baiyiya with the world after alot of healing work, focusing on growing as a yenbena, a custodian of woka , a community member , and sitting deeper with baiyiya( song ) than ever the past couple of years including working on the Ngarwu project that I look foward to sharing more with you from all very soon.

Dungudja dhomodhomonga wuta

Shall we all continue to do as we can in these precious times to -
Ngarwu Dorra Yenbena Lotjpa
Listen to Ancestors Talk

Produced by DRMNGNOW
Mixing & Mastering @dizz1
Film @dyllan_corbett
Film assistant @river_loizou
Ft @wulumbarra @yorta_dja_illam @brickyb___ @galnya_yenbena and other Yorta Yorta yakpna, filmed on Yorta Yorta woka by @drmngnow

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2 years ago

Primitive apparently. Yet your own systems suggest otherwise. Something isnt quite mathing Pauline. by @drmngnow

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20 days ago

Pray - live at @3rrrfm
Ft my brothers @dj_pgz on the drum kit & @pataphysics on trumpet.

Originally performed last November. For some reason never got around to posting this one so posting now in amidst all that the now is.

More fresh music on the way in times soon , but for now heres this one yakapna.

Hosted live on the night by the legendary @brrreaking.fm @simonwinkler101 @laurentaylorphotos

Sending this one out as a medicinal offering in amidst all the things that be and be circulating.

With utmost of love

N by @drmngnow

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a month ago

Today @ Camp Sovereignty. We stand together against Racism.

Following some atrocious Hate motivated Acts on Camp Sovereignty in the last 12 months amidst the growing rise of Right wing hate groups, We stand together to make it known to ignorant Racists that we will continue to always push back for a better way on our sacred lands.

Event ft Free live music From 2pm onwards.

Travel safe fam, stay careful on your way in and I will see some of you there.

Will be on around 5pm

Dhomodhomonga - Love

N taken in Naarm by @drmngnow

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7

a month ago

' Biyal'
@minyerra.minyerra Sound installation now live on Dja Dja Wurrung Djandak @castlemaineartmuseum until Nov 29th.

Works all created on Dja Dja Wurrung Djandak this winter.

Open

Thursday—Friday: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Saturday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Sunday: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

Sound installation as part of the broader @dumawul @djadjawurrung Biyal exhibition in commemortion of the Guildford Biyal ( Red Gum) A Redgum tree that has tood through generations , and seen things far beyond times of colonial impacts, deep into Djaara lives before colonial disturbance.

Still guiding the way now with love.

Sound works created with support from @dumawul @latrobe_art_institute on Djaara Djandak, June 2026. taken in Dja Dja Wurrung Country by @drmngnow

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a month ago

Blessed to create on Dja Dja Wurrung Djandak as part of the Biyal project this year through the depths of winter, spending June with country developing a body of works works .

The project is centred around honouring the ongoing Surival , resillience and life force that Biyal continues to give as a Red gum estimated to be up to 700 + - 1,000 years old. This has followed from Biyal recently experiencing the loss of a significant limb with a lightning strike which prompted this project where many community made pieces of work which have given love and honour to Biyal.

For me recognising and honouring Biyal has been a big process of honouring all things connected to Biyal and its special place on Djandak . And for me specifically also as pertains to my connection as a Djaara person of the Yung Balug clan , connected to Biyal through sacred waterway Bulutjal Yaluk which is a sacrwd waterway that starts as a freshwater spring in the Womabt forest runs nearby to Biyal & has thus provided key nourishment over the span of Biyals life. This waterway being sacred to nourishing key sacred sites on Yung Balug clan area also as the key arterial waterway for us as Yung Balug..

Ths Sound works I have created for this work will be installed this Saturday August 22nd Until Nov 29th at the Castlemaine Art Gallery along with the broader Biyal exhibition during gallery opening hours

Thursday – Friday: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Saturday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Sunday: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Grateful to contribute to this special project with support from @dumawul @latrobe_art_institute and most importantly Biyal and Djaara Djandak providing the sacred murrun experienced at the core of creating this work . taken in Dja Dja Wurrung Country by @drmngnow

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14

a month ago

Tapu whenua
Tapu wai

Grateful for the wairua that presents in such potency across these sacred waters and lands of Te Waipounamu / Te Waka o Aoraki across, Ngāi Tahu / Kāi tahu
Māori whenua and wai , rightfully and always.

Grateful to be held , to be able to breath to the deepest of depths. To be brought into the present, so clearly.

Māori Sovereignty never ceded.

Arohanui tonu
Āke āke āke. by @drmngnow

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2 months ago

Matariki, Ngāi Tārewa and Ngāti Irakēhu whenua.

Was precious honour of being able to be present for the Matariki Dawn Service Māori New Year event by Ngāi Tahu hapu Ngāi Tārewa and Ngāti Īrakehu of the the Ōnuku Marae. Standing in the midst of sacred ceremony shared in such a transformative way is libgering with me deeply. The power of the momentr truly did somethings to me that I will forever hold dear..

The Onuku Matariki was a historic event at Takapūneke Reserve in Akaroa an hour from Ōtautahi/ Christchurch at the ancient Ngāi Tahu site of trade and historical cultural significance where the hapū and the local Akaroa community frequently gather for hautapu.

Ōnuku are currently reclaiming and regenerating the site into a site of Māori cultural practice and occupation as it was prior to Colonisation which led to this being a key site in the Signing of the Tiriti O Waitangi.

Saddly ensuing the signing of Te Tiriti, 5 years later there was a devestating massacre incident take place at the same location. The site has gone through further degredation over time with a Waste Water plant operating in the site since the 1960s.

The reserve is now however actively being transformed from its tragic past into a sanctuary for healing, learning, and cultural reflection as led by Ōnuku.

Grateful to stand with our extended whanau in Te Waipounamu and witness what Indigenous leadership looks like in leading healing and transformation. Truly inspiring. by @drmngnow

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2 months ago

I have been with the land
The land has been with I,
With Us,
We.
Teaching
Guiding
Always
Since before we were defined as
'Aboriginal'
Since before
This land was subject to
Upheaval,
Since before we were plundered by
Subliminals,
Before mother earth was over run, with criminal actions,
Benefiting the minority
Debilitating the majority.
Putting things off axis.

But still,
The land has been with us,
The land will always be with us
Teaching
Guiding
Always

50 years of NAIDOC
Countless years of dreaming.

Into the now .

Dhungudja dhomodhomonga galnga mulana dorra wuta
Love abd good spirit to all in that we may be blessed and guided as our Ancestors have continued their prayers for us.

N by @drmngnow

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3 months ago

What does it mean to be an artist creating outside of cooptation? To understand, as Lao Tzu teaches, that hope is as hollow as fear?⁠
⁠
Poet, musician and cultural visionary Saul Williams joins Yorta Yorta artist, writer and activist Neil Morris for a conversation that traces colonial logics hidden in plain sight. From Wall Street to Boundary Street, they unpack how empire is built through naming, branding, borders and memory, and how these structures continue to shape the worlds we inherit.⁠
⁠
Together, they explore racial capitalism, Indigenous sovereignty, solidarity across occupied lands, and the role of art and language in imagining futures beyond colonialism. Spanning Turtle Island and so-called Australia, this is a conversation about refusing inherited narratives and creating new ways of seeing, speaking and belonging.⁠
⁠
This episode was produced and hosted by Wiradjuri baddie, Ethan Lyons @ngurambang for Race Matters on FBi Radio.⁠
⁠
Listen back to this episode via @fbiradio and @kooriradio93.7 online, community radio plus, wherever you get your podcasts or via the link in our bio. ⁠
⁠
Image description in comments⁠ by @drmngnow

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3 months ago